Rail-anchor method



Feb. 6, 192 3. 11,444,2(25.

- w. M. ossomu ET AL.

RAIL ANCHOR METHOD.

FILED JULY 3; 1922.

" lave/2m;

Patented Feb. 6, i923,

UNHTEE Application filed July 3,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, W nner-1; M. Ossonn, andREGINALD N. -Ween, citizens of the United States, both residing atChicago, in the county of Cook, State of Illinois, having jointlyinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Anchor Methods, dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same.

Our invention elates to a new and improved method for anchoring railwayrails from any longitudinal movement except that of contraction orexpansion and which anchors the rail as a unit to spiked tie-plates inboth longitudinal directions at approximately the center of its length.

It has been demonstrated that rails can be prevented from creeping byproviding tieresistance in both directions near the center of each raillength to keep it from longitudinal displacement under the traffic, andproper expansion facilities at each joint to allow each rail to expandand contract as a unit, that is to say without affecting the rail aheadof or behind it; the rail should be anchored both ways to givesufficient tie-resistance, as near its center as possible, to hold itfrom any longitudinal movement except that of expansion and contraction,and the joints should allow the rail to expand and contract withoutpushing or pulling the next rail. That part of the problem relating tothe joint connections ofi'ered no serious difliculty as they werereadily slotted and tensioned to allow the rail ends to move betweenthem when the rail expanded or contracted, but the factor of anchoringthe rail to hold it against longitudinal movement produced by causesother than expansion and contraction has heretofore resulted only inunsuccessful experiments and expedients. For example, various types ofanti-creepers were fastened to the rail and'extended below its base tobear on the sides of the ties, but lost-motion between them and the tiessoon developed as the tie was not attached to the anti-creeper but ofcourse did move with the rail which was spiked to it; also, when theanti-creepers were placed on both sides of the same tie a churning ofthe tie was produced by its being forced first in one direction and thenthe other by the creeping of the rail and this churning action of thetie crowde the ballast forward on its leading side and produced a recessor gap in the bal earsnr clerics.

N. WADE, 01E CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,A. CORPO- RAIL-ANCHOR lv'IETHOD.

1922. Serial No. 572360.

last on its rear side. Again, long angle bars were bolted to the centerof the rail and slotspiked to a plurality of ties, but this was found tobe objectionable as it required the drilling of at least six or eightholes through the web of the rail at rail-center to give sufficienttie-resistance for each rail length, with the result that the rails wereweakened and large numbers of them broke; the hamniering action of theshanks of the bolts on the sides of the bolt-holes destroyed theduotility of the steel of the rail and rendered it brittle, and soengineers of track maintenance regard this practice as undesirable andunsafe. Also, a plurality of short angle-bars were bolted to therail-web at the center of the rail and spiked to individual ties, butthe same objections resulted from drilling the holes through therail-web.

Our invention obviates the creeping of the rail as it is anchored bothways to tie-plates which are spiked to the ties so that suflicienttie-resistance is provided near the center of each rail length to holdthe individual rail from any longitudinal movement except that ofexpansion and contraction, and proper expansion joints are provided ateach of its ends. The unit control of each rail is assured as it isanchored near its center against longitudinal displacement in eitherdirection and expands and contracts without affecting the rail ahead ofor behind it. Also, the rail is not weakened or its characteristicsaffected; it is anchored in both directions by means of the same ties;there is no churning of the ties, and there are no gaps in the ballastat the sides of the ties; in short, rail creeping and tie churning areboth eliminated.

Our invention may be carried out in various ways and by various means,and in the accompanying drawings we illustrate practical applications ofit. In these drawings, Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a rail and tieplateassembled on a tie with welding material in place to be welded to therail base; Fi e 2 is a sectional view on the line 22 in ig. 1 with partsadded and an electrode of an electric weldin circuit showndiagrammatically, and fig. 3 is a top view showing the application ofthe invention to a rail length with parts broken away.

The invention consists in the matters hereinafter described and thenpointed out in the claims In the drawings the reference letter 2;.represents the head of a rail, B its base, U the web uniting the headand base, and D the ties. In the practice of our invention we employ a.tie-plate and an element projecting above and immovable transversely ofthe plate and overhanging the rail base that will afford abutment inboth horizontal directions for lugs or projections welded on the railitself; usually this overhanging element is in the form of a flangeintegral with the plate and extending across more or less of the widthof the plate, and preferably it is formed by a plurality of spacedflange units. In Figs. 1 and 2 the tie-plate (l is shown as providednear one side with a shoulder for the railba-se which carries at itsupper face aseries of integral heavy ribs 3 spaced apart along itslength and rising above it and overhanging the top edge of the rail-basewhen the latter assembled on the tie-plate. The plate is provided withspike-holes t for the spikes 5 outside the line of the shoulder 2 andbetween the ribs. The lower faces of the overhanging ribs are faced offto the contour of the rail-base, and the central rib may have a threadedopening to receive a set-screw 6 which bears upon the ra:il-base, all ina manner now well-understood in the art. The opposite side of the plateis provided with spike-holes 7 to receive spikes 8 for the opposite sideof the rail, it being understood that the plate will be spiked to thetie by the spikes 5 and 8. After the plate is assembled between therail-base and tie, and preferably after the plate is spiked to the tie,the parts of the rail-base between the ribs 3, and also at each side ofthe plate, are cleaned and all grease is removed with a burning torch orother suitable means. Then a lug of welding material, as at 9 is weldedon the rail-base in each recess between the ribs 3, and also preferablyat each side of the overhanging portion of the plate, preferably by anysuitable electric arc welding system or device. While the welding may bedone by any suitable hot-flame or thermit system, we prefer to useelectric welding, as it is more economical and expeditious for trackwork and does not affect the characteristics or constituents of therail; any suitable equipment may be used, such as the well-known trackwelders now commonly used for repairs on a streetrailway apparatus andtrack, and so it is not necessary to here show more than a dlagrammaticindication of the electrode as at e in Fig. 2.

lnFigs. 1 and 2 we also illustrate enemplifications of our invention inwhich the overhanging element is not integral with the tie-plate. In oneform the spike-holes 7 are elongated, as shown at the lower left handcorner of Fig. 1 and in Fig. 2, to recelve clips that fit between thespikes 8 and.

rail-base and overhan the latter. The clip here shown is made or metaland has substantially rectangular body 10 constructed to fit the-widthof a-spikel1ole 7 and provided with an inwardly directed upper flange 11to overlie the rail-base, and withan inwardly directly lower wing 12 tounderlie the inner end of the spike-hole and seat in a recess 13 in theunder face of the tie-plate. In the form shown at the upper left handcorner of Fig. l the head of the spike 8 forms the flange that immovabletransversely of the plate and overhangs the rail base; it may be eithera driven spike or crew spike. When these parts are assembled as shownthey are cleaned, and lugs 9 of welding material are welded on therailbase on opposite sides; of the overhanging flanges. if desired theintegral overhanging flange or ribs 3 may be used with either of theother forms, for example as illustrated in Fig. 2, All forms serve tohold the plate to the tie and impart the resistance of the latter to theplate and its longitudina-lly interlocked rail; the projection isimmovable transversely of the plate and tie, and overhangs the rail-baseto interlock with the welded lugs, so that the tie-resistance isimparted to the rail in both directions. It is obvious that variationsin the forms of these parts may be made without departing from the scopeof our invention.

In practice the tie-plates may be cast malleable iron plates Or rolledsteel plates, and in either case the welding material is preferably notunited to the plate but only to the rail itself. The heat of the arcmelts the welding material directly into place, and as the rail-base andthe welding material are in horizontal position the latter is preventedfrom running. l l hen the lugs of welding material are welded to therail they anchor the latter to the plate against longitudinal movementin either direction, while allowing vertical play of the rail on theplate after it is spiked to the tie. By this means a combined railanchor and tie-plate is provided which is practically a unit with therail so far as longitudinal creepmg strains or stresses of traliic areconcerned, and also is spiked to the tie so that the tie-resistancetolongitudinal displacement or creeping is effectively and com iletelyimparted to the rail. The rail anchored in both directions to the sametie, and there is no lost motion between the ties and rail, and nochurning of the ties or crowding of the ballast either way and norecesses in it at the side of the ties. By thus anchoring the rail toplates spiked to a plurality of ties near the center of the rail, asshown in Fig. 3, each rail length is held as a unit from anylongitudinal movement in either direction except that produced byexpansion and contraction of the rail. This creates unit conits materialto abut on opposite trol and each rail can expand and contract withoutpulling or pushing the rail ahead of or behind it proper expansion spacebeing kept at the end of each rail. The rail is not weakened and thecharacteristics of are not affected in any way.

We claim:

1. The method of anchoring railway rails consisting of assembling inposition between a tie and rail a tie-plate having a projectionoverhanging the rail-base, spiking the plate to the tie, and weldinglugs on the rail-base sides of said projection.

52. The method of anchoring railway rails consisting of assembling inposition between a tie and rail a tie-plate having a plurality of spacedribs overhanging the rail-base, spikin the plate to the tie, and weldinglugs on the rail-base in the spaces between the ribs.

3. The method of anchoring railway rails which consists in assemblingbetween a plurality of ties and the central portion of a rail a seriesof tie-plates each having a projection overhanging the rail-base,spiking the plates to the ties and welding lugs on the rail-base to abuton opposite sides of said projection.

41. The method of anchoring railway rails which consists in assemblingrails on their ties with expansion spaces between the rail ends,assembling between a plurality of ties and the central portion of eachrail a series of tie-plates each having a projection overhanging oneedge of the rail-base, spiking the plates and opposite edges of therailbases to the ties, and welding lugs on the rail-bases to abut onopposite sides of said projections.

In testimony whereof we afiix our signatures.

WARREN M. ()SBORN. REGINALD N. WADE.

